Spent Sunday 5/19 visiting with Dan's daughter Audrey and his grands, Caleb/Nicholas/Tiffany. Traveled to Monroe, WA via a Washington State Ferry. Always interesting to ride on the ferry boat. We helped celebrate Caleb's 17th birthday then headed back to the ferry dock and played around on the beach before going home. I didn't manage to get a picture of the birthday boy, Caleb, but here are some I took of everyone else. It was a very long day but a very good day.

Leaving the Kingston, WA ferry dock.

We are riding on the ferry Puyallup.

This is the ferry coming into the Edmonds, WA dock.

Another view of the ferry. Out to the right of the ferry, out in the water is a place for divers. I guess its pretty cool under the water there.

Nicholas playing on the rocks.

Dan and Tiffany doing something on the beach. Maybe feeling how cold the water is.

Nicholas and Tiffany found bunches of kelp out on the beach.

Nicholas and Papa collecting kelp.

Tiffany and Papa also collecting kelp.

Dan's daughter Audrey messing around with Nicholas.

Nicholas playing on the killer whale carving. Love the freight train in the background passing by.

The view from our truck window going back home on the ferry. Not very often we are right up front on the boat.

Well, we made it back home to Bremerton, WA. Got home, got set up, then we were off to a family birthday party. Only my sister Christine knew we were coming so everyone at the party were all excited. Not gonna write much except to describe some of the pictures.

Traveling over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on Hwy 16.

View of the inactive ships at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. You can see the famous hammer head crane way off in the distance on the right side of the picture.

We don't normally head home on Hwy 3 to Silverdale/Poulsbo but downtown Bremerton was having the annual Armed Forces Day parade. Going our normal way, close to town, would have been really crowded.

Ivy Road. I grew up on this street.

Here is my mom's house. That's my car in the driveway waiting for me to come home for the summer. My car "lives" here all Fall, Winter, and part of the Spring.

My mom's lilacs are in bloom. They smell so good.

A form of Hollyhock. But we all call it the "Christine plant" as my sister brought it home when she was a little girl and it just keeps "coming back" each year and blooming.

Our parking place for the summer.

My sister Christine smiling out at me.

And did you really think that I wouldn't put pictures of Bella on here? haha
Shes been up in a couple of the apple trees, climbing and climbing.

We are at the Puyallup Fairgrounds until Saturday, 5/18. We've been here before. There are full hookups here. The ground is kind of mushy and real wet after the rain storm a couple of days earlier. I dug out my rubber boots cause I sure need to wear them here. Saturday will be a good day to travel. No rush hour traffic. That's always a plus for us. Then we'll be in Bremerton, Washington all summer, parked in my mom's yard. It will time to take care of all our doctor appointments so we can leave again in the middle of September.


Looking back at our rig from a big field that Bella was playing in.

Of course she found a tree to climb. This poor tree has seen better days. It looks totally dead to me.

Today we are leaving the Muckleshoot Casino parking lot and heading to the Puyallup Fairgrounds. They have full hookups. Big travel day. Almost 14 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahaha.......We will be there for 4 days and get into Bremerton on Saturday 5/18. Gonna take the time to REALLY clean our rig inside before we sit all summer at home in Bremerton. Once I get home, I get distracted all the time and tend to neglect some stuff. We also wanna finish watching the trial we've been following since January. The Jodi Arias trial. You can look her up. Shes one nasty woman. At the fairground we can watch on HLN tv without getting distracted except for going out with Bella. Probably sounds dumb about wanting to watch the trial, but, oh well.....We seen Dan's mom, Mary, twice while here at the casino. Drove to her place at the assisted living home on Mother's Day and took her to dinner, visited, seen Dan's brother there, then came back home. The next time we drove in a POURING down rain storm to go get her and bring her back here to the casino. Took her to the buffet and she played the penny slots. When we picked her up we took Bella with us. Man oh man@ Bella wasn't happy with that ride. The rain pouring down on the truck sounded awful to her I guess and the windshield wipers were very noisy. We never had to use them down in Quartzsite and she didn't like them. After she calmed down, she rode ok, just like she always does. She was VERY good where Mary lives. I wish I would have taken some pictures of how good she was. Here is what I wrote to my sister Christine about Bella.

"Been another long day. Had a big storm come in. So bad with wind and rain that I lowered the satellite dish. Went to get Mary and brought her back here to Muckleshoot. Took her to the casino buffet and Dan gave her a 20 to put in the penny slots. She did have about 55 bucks, then dwindled it away. Guess she had a good time. We took Bella with us when we went to pick Mary up. Took Bella in where she lives. She walked on the leash going in, but walked along with us without the leash all the way down the hall, down the stairs, along the other hall and out the door. She was slow going because she had to sniff every door in the hall and poke her head in an open door. Shes snoopy. She followed as good as an obedient dog. All we had to say was "come on Bella, this way". Good Bella"..........And, that's the Bella story.

Here is a very good picture of Dan and his mom and a rare picture. Its very hard for me to get her to stop talking and actually smile for a picture. I'll take 10 or so pictures before I get a good one with her chatting. lol lol

Dan with his younger brother Ed.

Dan's mom Mary, sister-in-law Lynn, brother Ed, and Dan.

Cruising in the Fred Meyer store.

Dan with the shopping cart and Mary following.

Playing the penny slots in the Muckleshoot Casino.

Dan and his mom.

We cannot say enough good things about the Muckleshoot Casino. Aside from being able to park here, the buffet was good and there is an entire section of gambling with NO smoking! Info for RVs coming to Auburn, WA. You can park your rigs in the southeast corner of the casino and can stay for 72 hours. We've been here almost that long. If you need to stay longer, you can notify security. I know all this because I wrote to the casino before we got here and got a nice response from a casino marketing coordinator. There is plenty of security patrolling the parking lots. A good stopover.

No complaining in this entry. I was really upset in the last blog entry. It happens.......We drove another real short day to Auburn, WA to park in the Muckleshoot Casino parking lot. This is about as close as we can get to where Dan's mom lives. Its only us and a motor home here. This is actually a good stopping place for a couple of days. We are allowed to stay here for 72 hours. If we need to stay longer, we contact the security people. I wrote an email to the casino and they answered back within an hour giving me all the information. We went to another seafood buffet tonight and it was almost as good as the one at Lucky Eagle Casino. And, I spent 20 bucks and came out with 80 bucks in my pocket. Cool. So far this has been a good place to park. Security seems to be around a lot and that's good. Sure is a busy and popular casino. I was really tickled that the casino has a huge section for non-smokers. We stayed in that section..........Dan's grandson Ryan came to see us today. That was a plus. Ryan's dad, John, brought him. They stayed several hours this afternoon......Bella has been out on her leash several times. She does real good exploring around in the bushes until something loud goes by on the road. Then she heads for the door.

We found a good place to park. Way out of the way of anyone who might come into the parking lot and little trees and shrubs on one side of us.

Looking at the Muckleshoot Casino sign.

Ryan brought his bike with him.

Ryan and Papa having a good laugh.

We are in Rochester, WA. Staying one night at this RV park. Its the RV park for the Lucky Eagle Casino. We like coming to this casino because of the good seafood buffet.........Nice park with big sites. A good number of sites. Bella loved it here as soon as we parked. She could go outside without a leash as there are plenty of places to roam. We were out walking around with her when another 5th wheel pulled in. They had the whole park to choose a spot and guess where they parked? Right beside us. RIGHT BESIDE US! Why do people have to NEST??? I just couldn't believe they are right next to us. And, as we were walking back to our rig, out comes a DOG! It WAS gonna be a nice overnight stay here. Ok. I'm done bitching now.

Our nice parking spot before someone had to park in the spot right next to us. Oh sigh. If I took this picture again, you wouldn't our rig. Maybe only the front of our truck. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

This is how we look now. Oh sigh......

Look at all the places in the park they could have gone.

This WAS the view from our rig. Now we're looking at the side of someones rig.

This is out on the other side of our rig. Bella really liked it out there in the grass. We will take her back out walking in the field again.

Here's some more pictures of the Columbia River where we are staying at Columbia Riverfront RV Park. Heading to Rochester, WA next to the Lucky Eagle Casino..... www.luckyeagle.com
We love the Friday night seafood buffet there. YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Bella out walking on the big log. I can't believe she didn't take advantage of the HUGE outdoor litter box. The whole beach!!!!!!!!!!! hahahaha

Can you tell that she is a favorite subject? Just like our wonderful cat Bonehead was.

Walking the beach. You can see the barge in the background coming down the river.

The barge passing by us in the sparkly sunlight.

One lone sailboat having fun drifting around in the wind.

Another barge heading up the river.

I thought this was pretty.

Very pretty rhododendron here in the RV park.